Bus Riders Scramble As Gunman Kills Passenger, Then Himself

FORT LAUDERDALE - — Without argument or provocation, a 35-year-old man riding a Broward County Transit bus pulled out a sawed-off shotgun, shot and killed a rider sitting in front of him, then fatally shot himself Monday afternoon, police said.

The bus driver screeched to a halt on East Las Olas Boulevard and the five to seven other passengers ran out, hysterical, leaving the two men dead inside, witnesses said.

"They were tripping over each other on the street" to get out, said Jason Longo, 23, who was trying to drive out of his East Las Olas driveway when bus No. 8303 stopped in front of him at Riviera Drive.

Longo ran into the bus to see whether he could help, and found a grim scene: the bloody bodies of victim Byron Dean Flowers, 38, and the gunman, William Daren Harrison.

"There was nothing, basically, that could be done," Longo said. Harrison was lying face down in the middle of the aisle. Flowers was slumped over the seat in front of him with "a 4-inch hole in his head."

Some passengers scattered and were not interviewed by police. None was injured.

"He was pretty scared - the bus driver," said Orlando Garcia, the store manager. "I dialed 911, then he grabbed the phone from me ... We got scared, you know?'' Other shopkeepers ran out to see Aubri Benjamin, 36, sitting on the stairs of the bus, rocking a 2-year-old boy and "wailing at the top of her lungs," said Elizabeth Lindholm, an employee of Las Olas Design Group, an interior decorating company.

"She was just screaming, `Somebody help me, somebody help me,'" said Debbie Liptak, another employee. "Blood started dripping off that back [bus] door there."

Police said Benjamin was Flowers' live-in companion. The couple had a 2-year-old son - whom Benjamin was cradling - and lived in Fort Lauderdale. They may have been homeless at one time, police Detective Sonya Friedman said.

Benjamin and the toddler were sitting on the bus seat in front of Flowers, who was in the middle of the 45-seat bus. Harrison, the gunman, had changed seats at some point during the bus ride, Friedman said, and was sitting somewhere behind Flowers.

Police said Flowers was shot by Harrison, who then fatally shot himself. Driver's license records list a post office box in Coral Ridge, a Fort Lauderdale neighborhood, as Harrison's address. Maita, a 17-year BCT driver, said "there were no threats, nothing. It just went down out of nowhere."

Maita said he heard but did not see the shots, stopped the bus and left. He would not comment further. Police said it was to be his last bus run of the day when the shooting occurred at 2:26 p.m.

Police did not know when the gunman got on the bus, which was heading east on Las Olas to a final destination at the Pompano Square Mall. Flowers, Benjamin and their son got on the bus near the Hyde Park Market, 500 E. Las Olas Blvd, Friedman said.

One passenger said she heard the shots, but thought it was a noise from the bus. When the other passengers began running off, she did, too, not knowing what had happened.

"I got out of there as quick as I could," she said, later adding, "I guess I'll have to pay another bus fare."

Police said there was no indication the victim and gunman knew one another or that the gunman knew Benjamin.

"At this point, it appears to be without reason or without motivation," Friedman said.

Mike Scanlon, director of Broward County Transit, said he didn't know what could be done to prevent such a shooting if someone is willing to board a bus carrying a concealed weapon.

"It can happen in a split second," Scanlon said. "I don't think there's anything we could have done to prevent this."

At the same time, he said, the agency will scrutinize the incident to see if anything can be learned from it.

"Fortunately, there were not a lot of people on board," Scanlon said.

Scanlon said the bus will be impounded by police.

About two hours after the shooting, police removed the bodies of the two men, whose only known connection in life was a fatal one. Their bodies were taken away in a police vehicle, side by side.